Cross posted from
Ressentiment
The Key to happiness if you are a Citizen Watcher employed by the federal government is to have a unique identifier for every person on the planet in a centralized database. In esoteric technical circles this unique personal identifier is referred to as The Key. Advanced nirvana in watcher-world is to write this unique identifier, The Key, onto personal identification devices and make it illegal to leave home without it.
The penalties for not carrying your personal identification device could, in theory, have similar consequences to the penalties imposed upon the Ana-baptists of Zurich, who refused to acknowledge the official religion established by the government and therefore suffered banishment and beheading, ostracism and exile. Some may recall that
Hans Landis became the last Anabaptist to leave Switzerland when his head was chopped off in 1614. Eventually these religious extremists found freedom from religious persecution here in America in the Mennonite and Amish communities of what was then called Penn's Woods, or Pennsylvania. The state - especially the church-state - could not tolerate those who refused to bend their knee to its authority and its utilities.
The absolute highest level of nirvana for those tasked with Watching - the indescribable extacy of mind, body and spirit unified within a molton volcanic stew of domestic spy craft - is to have tiny transmitters embedded in personal identification devices which broadcast The Key via radio waves to any machine which may be interested to listen.
On the client side - on the chip-transmitter which resides in your pocket or under your skin - the volume of data written on the ID card itself is quite modest - a few hundred bits. In fact, aside from The Key itself and some supporting cyphers that make it difficult to tamper with, the ID card does not need to store any information at all. Everything else can be looked up using The Key on computer systems where your personal portfolio will be maintained. But, because chip memory is relatively cheap and dense in the vastness of nano-space, your ID card will carry a small digitized photograph of your face which will pop up on the Watcher's console when she asks for your papers.
The Watcher will rest your ID on the reader on her counter. The reader will gently prompt your ID card to reveal its innermost secrets with the electronic equivalent of a knock knock joke. Without any typing at all, the Watcher's computer will automatically retrieve your digital face from your on-line portfolio and juxtapose it beside the digital face stored on your ID. The Watcher will then glance up from her console to your real face just as the grocery cashier does after she runs all your items over the bar code reader.
If you are not a terrorist or a dissident and you do not have any outstanding warrants, the line will continue to move quickly and efficiently and you will be allowed to pass. Otherwise an instant Blue Light Special will ensue, complete with flashing lights and people running in all directions, and those behind you in line will be treated to a comic spectacle as you are frog-marched into the back room.
Initially only US passport holders who want to use an airport will be affected by the new rules. The fear-factor will be quite manageable for cosmopolitans who are already used to being wand-ed and patted down by TSA personnel. We will be infinitely assured that the digital information on the passport is securely encrypted and that only duly elected government card readers will know the electronic knock knock joke required to log onto and read the card.
The knock knock joke will be stored in a secret location which only government computers, and Karl Rove, will be allowed to access.
Eventually - after this initial feasibility study directed ostensibly at foreign travellers wishing to fly into the continental United States, other communities of Watchers will begin to covet the convenience of the passport system and they will want to apply for permission to use it in their own applications.
For example The Key would find itself infinitely useful for voter registration systems, relieving the concerns of local election supervisors that out-of-towners might try to vote in more than one state, or that non-resident aliens will ask to use their restrooms. A federally validated passport linked to a state voter registration database might be a very nice thing to have in some cases.
The possibilities are infinite, especially if the technology develops for portable card readers attached to wireless laptops or even PDAs which could be given to officers of the law and the Minute Men. The Immigration and Naturalization Service could deputize local law enforcement officers, who could then spot check work sites where undocumented workers oppress small businesses with their low cost wages.
Did some of your workers manage to get by the Minute Men some time during the middle of the night a couple of years back? No problemo, we can scan them all for you in no time at all. No passport - no labor. No tickie - no laundry. We can even install one of these here reader gizmoids in your panel truck if you want, and you can scan your day laborers yourself before you pick them up in front of the 7-11.
Just think of the all problems that could be solved with RDIF radio passport readers.
You could pay your tolls with them. Just drive right through at 55 MPH and the reader in the toll booth will look up The Key for you and decrement your pre-paid account. After a while you'll forget it's there. Don't exceed the speed limit though unless you want to get a ticket in the mail.
Speaking of tickets in the mail, what if we put some of these reader gizmoids near the schools? For speeding past a RDIF reader in a school zone they will automatically mail you your own proximity ankle bracelet along with your speeding ticket and you can play Martha Stewart at home for a few months. Same thing at the grocery store. No more digging through you purse or wallet to find your credit card and your discount racket pass. You just stand close to the card reader and it will scan you just we scan your food items.
How about at work? You can have a universal building pass for every location you are authorized to enter.
How about at home? Just walk up to the front door and back your butt up to the reader with both arms full of groceries! Presto! If the rent is paid.
Of course you will want to install a reader on your car too. Maybe not if you're a DUI subscriber. Too easy for the Watchers do find out you been driving on a suspended license.
Now we're talkin, right! What do you mean no way in hell?
It wouldn't be a problem if you didn't ...